Bag type sleever



April 1963 o. H. PEARSON ETAL 3,084,838

BAG TYPE SLEEVER 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 22, 1960 INVENTORS PEARSON 040 1 HO/SVE ATTUPNEY April 1963 0.1-1. PEARSON ETAL 3,084,838

BAG TYPE SLEEVER Filed April 22, 1960 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 21 30 0770 H. P5 25 N B/{AROL 10/0/51 5 ATTOQ/VE) April 9, 1963 o. H. PEARSON EI'AL 3,084,838

BAG TYPE SLEEVER Filed April 22, 1960 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Z 47 51 1 01752. 48 44 J72 l 45 53 67 FT k f 65 66 F e U 40 INVENTORS 0r7'0 P'APSO/V ly/420w 1 Ho/sws ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,084,838 BAG TYPE SLEEVER Otto H. Pearson and Harold V. Hoist/e, Salt Lake (Iity,

Utah, assignors, by mesne assignments, to McGraw- Edison Company, Elgin, Ill, a corporation of Delaware Filed Apr. 22, 1960, Ser. No. 24,143 9 Claims. (Cl. 223-73) This invention relates to a sleeve pressing machine.

In commercial linen supply or industrial laundries pressing and finishing the sleeves of uniform coats and jackets presents problems that do not exist in the finishing or pressing of conventional dress or work shirts and straight sleeved coats.

Prior sleeve-pressing machines generally use a onelay automatic sleeve press consisting of two padded sleeve bucks cooperating with two non-flexible expander blades. In use, the shirt sleeves are placed over the bucks, the expanders move outward to stretch and form the sleeves, the pressing heads close on the assembly and press the sleeves. However, this type of sleeve pressing is possible only because the general Shape and contour of these sleeves are similar even though there may be a great difference in the range of sizes.

The work coats or uniform coats worn by doctors, butchers, waiters, barbers, nurses, etc., have to be shaped and tailored to best fit the needs of the profession. It then follows that the wide full sleeves of the butcher coat made to be worn over several undergarments would be far different from the close fitting tapered sleeve worn by a doctor or dentist. For economic reasons it is desirable to press and finish the sleeves of all of the above kinds of professional coats on the same press. But, because of the extremely great variation in size, sleeve contour, and thickness of material existing in these coats, attempting to press them on the straight-buck conventional sleever with non-flexible or non-shape-compensating wings is impossible. The few sleeves that have the same general contour as the non-flexible wings are stretched tight and press perfectly, but the large majority of coat sleeves, because of the above mentioned variations, cannot be stretched properly by the non-flexible expander and thereby cannot be pressed on the conventional sleever.

Because prior sleevers do not work properly, the method now used by most commercial laundries is to press each sleeve of. a coat individually, using a flat press. This causes the two halves of the tubular sleeve to fuse together making it exeremely difficult for the wearer of the garment to put his arms into the sleeves.

In order to provide a machine that will overcome the above-mentioned faults, the invention has for an object to provide a machine with sleeve bucks that have great adaptation to a large range of sleeve sizes so that the operator, without any changes in settings and adjustments, may feed the sleeves of garments to the machine, as they run, so to speak, thereby greatly facilitating a sleevepressing operation and shortening the buck dressing time considerably.

Another object of the invention is to provide a sleeve pressing machine that embodies novel and improved aircontrol means for aiding dressing of the buck so that the sleeves are properly disposed on the buck in Wrinklefree condition, thereby insuring wrinkle-free pressing.

A further object of the invention is to provide novel means that provides for automatically supplying a full flow of pressing air during the actual pressing of the sleeves.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a pressing machine that embodies simple single-valve means that changes the low pressure air flow during dressing of the bucks to full flow high pressure air flow during pressing.

Patented Apr. 9, 1963 Our invention also has for its objects to provide such means that are positive in operation, convenient in use, easily installed in a working position and easily disconnected therefrom, economical of manufacture, relatively simple, and of general superiority and serviceability.

The invention also comprises novel details of construction and novel combinations and arrangements of parts, which will more fully appear in the course of the following description and which is based on the accompanying drawings. However, said drawings merely show, and the following description merely describes, one embodiment of the present invention, which is given by way of illustration or example only.

In the drawings, like reference character designate similar parts in the several views.

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view, as seen from the side of a bag type sleever according to the present in vention.

FIG. 2 is a plan sectional view as taken on the plane of line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary side detail View showing the pressing air conducting means of the present machine.

FIG. 4 is a front elevational view, partly in section, of a buck-mounting unit used in the present machine.

FIG. 5, to a greatly increased scale, is a cross-sectional view as taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 1, the figure showing a sleeve-pressing operation.

FIG. 6 is a semi-diagrammatic view of the air flow of the present machine.

The machine that is illustrated comprises, generally, a frame 19, a buck unit 11 mounted in said frame to pivotally move between a sleeve-dressing and a sleevepressing position, means 12 (FIG. 6) to supply operating air for etfecting such movement of the unit 11 toward pressing position, spring means 13 for effecting return movement of unit 11 to dressing position, two pairs of pressing platen means 114 mounted in the frame and be tween each pair of which the buck unit 11 moves to pressing position, means 15 controlled by the means 12, as the unit 11 arrives in pressing position, to move said platen into pressing engagement with a pair of garment sleeves mounted on unit 11, means 16 to supply pressing air to the machine, means 17 to heat said pressing air, and valve means 18 to control the flow of pressing air to the heating means 17 and thence to the unit 11 according to the position of said unit, as mentioned.

The frame is shown with a base part 2t) that has a transverse forward support 21 and a transverse rearward support 22, side frame parts 23 that have upwardly extending rearward portions 24, and a top connecting member 25 for the upper ends of the portions 24. At its front,

the frame is provided with a transverse member 26.

. The buck unit 11 is best shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4. The same is supported on the support 21 by means of end bearings 27 and 28. Bearing 27 comprises a tubular cap and bearing 28 is formed as a tube 29 with an upwardly directed tube extension 30. Said cap and bearing tube 29 receive the opposite ends of a pivot tube 31, suitable seals 32 being provided to seal against leakage of air from bearing 28 into the tube 3 1.

As seen in FIGS. 2 and 4, the pivot tube 31 has a pair of parallel spaced riser tubes 33 extending therefrom, the same being connected near their upper ends by a cross plate 34, the air in tube -31 being carried upwardly in said tubes 33. Each tube '33 carries a buck 35 at its upper end, the same being generally flat, as in FIGS. 4 and 5, compressible from opposite sides and enclosed in a porous cover so that air entering the interior thereof from the tubes 33 may exit therethrough. For sleeves, the form or buck 35 has the tapered shape shown in FIG. 1.

Each tube 3 3 has a pair of. upwardly directed airconducting tubes 36 extending therefrom, one at the front and the other at the rear. According to the present invention, each tube 36 has a cloth, preferably nylon, bag 37 connected to the upper end and affixed to the upper end of the buck 35. Said bags 37, therefore, reside, one at the front edge and the other at the back edge of the buck, as may best be seen in FIG. 5; It will be clear that air in tube 36 travels into the bags 37 and distends the latter while, at the same time, escaping through the pores in said bags at a rate of escape according to the pressure of said air.

Since said buck unit 11 pivots or tilts on the axis of tube 31 in the bearings 27 and 28 between a forward, dressing position, as in FIG. 1, and a rearwardly inclined pressing position in register with the pressing platens 14, means is provided to effect such movement. The means 12 for moving the unit 11 to the pressing position is shown as an air motor 38 that is pivotally carried at 39 by the frame member 26 and has an extending piston rod 40 that is connected to a pin 41 carried by a rearwardly directed brace frame 42a connected at its ends to the tube 31 and the cross plate 34. Said air motor is disposed between the riser tubes 33, as in FIG. 2.

From FIG. 6, it will be seen that said air motor 38 receives pressure air from a line 42 that comes from a source 43 and is released for flow into line 42 by a solenoid valve 44. The air in this flow is preferably subject to pressure control by a controller 45, and oil removal as by filter 46. A pressure gauge 47 may be provided to show the pressure and guide the setting of the controller 45. The valve 44 is of the type that assumes a closed condition after the same has vented through the exhaust device 48.

In the usual manner, an electrical controller, exemplified by a push button 49 and a switch 50, energizes the solenoid 51 of valve 44, opening the same and releasing pressure air from source 43 to flow into motor 38 to extend the piston rod 40. Thus, the unit 11 is moved from its forward dressing position and its rearwardly inclined pressing position. Either a push button 52 and a switch 53 or a timer device (not shown) may open the line to the solenoid 51, causing closing of the valve 44 and simultaneous venting thereof and of line 42. The unit 11 is now free to return to dressing position, providing the bucks of the same are released by platens 14.

Upon such release of the unit 11, the spring means 13 become effective to return the unit 11 to dressing position. Said means 13 is shown as a pair of pull springs 54 that extend between frame member 26 and pin 41, as can be seen in FIG. 2.

The pressing platens 14 are carried by a transverse frame member 55 that extends between the frame portions 24 of the main frame. Two pairs of anns 56 are carried by said member 55 on pivots 57. At one end,

each pair of arms carries a pair of platens 5% which face each other and, in the usual way, are supplied by heating steam in chambers 59. In this case, the opposed faces 60 of the platens are flat, as best shown in FIG. 5. It will be noted that the platens 58 have universal adjustability relative to each other because of the pivot 61 between the same and arms 56, and position-compensating springs 62. Suitable spring means (not shown) are so connected to arms 56 as to spread the platens 58 apart from their closed pressing position that is shown in FIG. 5.

The means .15 is shown as an air motor 63 disposed between each pair of .arms 56, the same receiving pressure air from a line 64 from air motor 38 and is so extended that the piston 65 thereof moves past the port 66 where the line 64-is connected to said air motor 38. Thus, only after the buck unit 11 has been moved to pressing position, is operating air available to extend the motors 63'.

By providing the piston rods 67 of said motors with wedge-like earns 68 and placing said cams between rollers 69 on the ends of arms '56 that are opposite to the pressing platens, extension of said rods 67 will cause said cams to spread the rearward ends of arms 56, thereby moving the platens 58 together into pressing engagement, as in FIG. 5, such movement being effective against the mentioned platen-separating springs.

The means 16 for supplying air to the buck unit 11 comprises a pump 71? that is driven by a motor 71a, the former being mounted on the support 22 and the latter on transverse bars 71 spanning between the frame extensions 24 below the platen means 14. Said pump has an air inlet 72 at the top and a bottom air outlet 73 that enters into a manifold 74 that has two upwardly directed air conduits 75 and '76. Conduit 75 extends in a direction back toward the inlet 72 and has a connection 77 therewith. It will be clear that the flow of air from manifold 74 is divided between the conduits 75 and 76 in a proportion according to the relative sizes of said conduits. Thus, the portion of the air that enters the conduit 75 is bypassed back to the inlet 72, joining the inlet air to be recirculated by the pump 70. The remainder is conducted by conduit 7a to the means 17. Therefore, only part of the output of the pump is directed to the means 17 when the bypass conduit 75 is open to flow.

7 The means 17 is shown as a heat exchanger comprising a housing 78 through which air from conduit 76 passes through a connection '79 into the tube 36! of the bearing 23, and a steam coil 89 that, by means of an inlet 81, conducts steam through said coil to effect a heat exchange engagement with the air in housing 78. The steam exists at outlet 82. Therefore, the air entering the buck unit 11 is heated by the means '17.

The flow controlling means 18, similar to the means 15, is controlled by the flow of pressure air in conduit 64 as the unit 11 reaches pressing position. Said means 18 is shown as a normally open butterfly valve 83 in bypass conduit 75, a control arm 84 on said valve, and an air motor 85 that is supplied with pressure air by a pipe 86 that is connected to and receives such air from the line 64.

Operation The operator first dresses the two bucks 35 by placing the sleeves 87 of a garment over the bucks and including the collapsed limp bags 37. While holding the sleeves in place, the operator steps on a foot switch (not shown) 'to start the motor 71 and place the blower 70 in operation. Since the valve. 83 is open, the supply of air to the bucks is at a low pressure but enough to cause some distention of the bags 37 and causing the same to hold the sleeves in place while the same are shifted up or down and all wrinkles removed. Then, when the sleeves are in proper position on the bucks with the remainder of the garment disposed upon a tray 88 that is affixed to the unit 11 below the bucks, the operator opens the means 12 to operating air flow by a touch of the button 49. Thereafter, the operation is automatic, thereby releasing the machine attendant for any other chores and duties, such as preparation of the next garment to be handled, placing of the garment with its pressed sleeves in a machine that presses the body, etc.

As the buck unit reaches pressing position, the air from motor 38 operates the means 18 to cause valve 83 to close, blocking the by-pass 75 and causing the pump 70 to send its entire discharge to the conduit 76 and, therefore, after heating by the means 17, to the buck unit 11. Simultaneously, the motors 15 will receive operating air from motor 38 and be extended to cause the platens 58 to close over the dressed bucks.

It will be seen from FIG. 5 that the bags 37 form folds in the wall thereof since the same can expand only as much as the size of the sleeves will allow. Therefore, said bags comprise automatically adjustable, completely flexible means that distend the sleeves to their maximum size without, however, straining the sleeves. Before the platens 58 are closed over the bucks, the bags 37 assume a somewhat rounded or bulbous condition with the excess of fabric forming folds in the bag wall. Then, as the platens close over the dressed bucks, the bags, as shown in FIG. 5, flatten to the flattened thickness of the bucks 35. It will be evident that most of the sleeve sides are subject to pressure of the platens while heated air from within the bucks and bags escapes through the porous covers of the bucks and the porous fabric of the bags to cause drying and pressing from within. Only the portions of the sleeve that are not engaged by the platensthe bights at the front and rearwill pass more heated air in an outward direction than the sleeve sides which are in contact with the platens. As a consequence, said sleeve bights become fully dried and pressed during the drying and pressing of the sleeve sides.

As mentioned, a timer device may control the circuit to the solenoid 51 to cause the same to close valve 44 and vent the line 42, or the operator may touch button 52 to de-energize solenoid 51. In either case, the air motor 38 becomes vented, allowing the spring means 13 to return the buck unit to its initial position, shutting ofi the air supply to the means 15 and 18. As a consequence, lines 64 and 86 vent through check valve 89 through the valve 44, causing release movement of the platens and restoration of the valve 83 to open position.

Since the bags 37 become deflated upon such opening of valve 83, the attendant may easily strip the pressed sleeves upward from the end of the bucks which may now be dressed with the sleeves of another garment to begin the next cycle of operation.

While we have illustrated and described what We now contemplate to be the best mode of carrying out our invention, the construction is, of course, subject to modification without departing from the spirit and scope of our invention. Therefore, we do not wish to restrict ourselves to the particular form of construction illustrated and described, but desire to avail ourselves of all modifications that may fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A sleeve pressing machine comprising a buck unit mounting at least one buck, means to move the unit between a position at which the buck may be dressed with a sleeve to be pressed and a position at which the sleeve on the buck is adapted to be pressed, means to supply heated air under pressure, means to conduct a portion of said heated air to the buck under lower pressure than the pressure of the supply when the buck is in its dressing position, means controlled by the unit-moving means to increase the pressure of the heated air in the buck when the buck is in its pressing position, the unit-moving means being pressure-air operated, a valve to vary the flow of the heated air to vary the pressure thereof, and a controller for said valve operated by pressure air released from the unit-moving means.

2. A sleeve pressing machine comprising a buck unit mounting at least one buck, means to move the unit between a position at Which the buck may be dressed with a sleeve to be pressed and a position at which the sleeve on the buck is adapted to be pressed, air circulating means including a conduit conducting part of said air to the buck at all times and a conduit by-passing the remainder of the air, a normally-open valve in the bypassing conduit, and a controller for closing said valve and operated by air released from the unit-moving means when the buck is in pressing position to include said remainder of the air in the flow to the buck.

3. A sleeve pressing machine according to claim 2 in which the unit-moving means includes an air motor that is extended by pressure air to move the buck unit to pressing position, said motor having a port to release air therein when the motor is thus extended, and a conduit connects the port and the controller to operate the same.

4. In a sleeve pressing machine, a movable sleeve buck, means for supplying said buck with pressing air comprising a blower, an air inlet to the blower, an air outlet from the blower, a conduit extending from the outlet to the buck, a second conduit extending from the outlet back to the inlet, a normally open valve in the second conduit whereby the outlet air from the blower is divided to flow into both conduits whereby the flow to the buck, when in sleeve-dressing position, is less than the full outlet flow, and means controlled by movement of the buck to pressing position to close said valve and thereby close the second conduit and direct all of the outlet air to the buck.

5. In a sleeve pressing machine according to claim 4, means to heat the air moving toward the buck.

6. In combination, means to produce a flow of pressure air, a movable buck, means operated by said air flow to move said buck between dressing and pressing positions, means to produce a flow of pressing air, means to divide said latter flow to conduct part of said fiow at low pressure to the buck, when the latter is in dressing position, means controlled by the buck-moving means, when the buck is in pressing position, to add the remainder of the flow of pressing air to the mentioned part flow to increase the pressure thereof, and pressing platens at the pressing position of the buck, said latter means moving the pressing platens into pressing engagement with the buck simultaneously with increase of the pressure of air to the buck.

7. In a pressing machine, a buck, pneumatic means to move the buck between dressing and pressing positions, means to supply heated air under pressure, means to supply part of said heated air to the buck under lower pressure than the pressure of the supply when the buck is in dressing position, means, controlled by the buckmoving means, to increase the pressure of the heated air in the buck When the latter is in pressing position and to vary the flow of heated air to the buck, said latter means controlling the flow-varying means and being operated by air released from the buck-moving means.

8. A sleeve pressing machine comprising a buck, pneumatic means to move said buck between dressing and pressing positions, a source of air supply, means to circulate part of said air supply at all time to said buck, connecting means to bypass the remainder of said air supply, means operated by air released from the buck-moving means when the buck is in pressing position to constrict the by-passing flow and increase the flow of air to the buck, accordingly.

9. In a sleeve pressing machine according to claim 8, means disposed between the buck and the first air-circulating means to heat all of the air flowing in the latter means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,516,054 Forse et a1. July 18, 1950 2,521,297 Littel Sept. 5, 1950 2,743,853 McLagan May 1, 1956 2,943,772 Weihmayr July 5, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 832,668 Great Britain Apr. 13, 1960 

1. A SLEEVE PRESSING MACHINE COMPRISING A BUCK UNIT MOUNTING AT LEAST ONE BUCK, MEANS TO MOVE THE UNIT BETWEEN A POSITION AT WHICH THE BUCK MAY BE DRESSED WITH A SLEEVE TO BE PRESSED AND A POSITION AT WHICH THE SLEEVE ON THE BUCK IS ADAPTED TO BE PRESSED, MEANS TO SUPPLY HEATED AIR UNDER PRESSURE, MEANS TO CONDUCT A PORTION OF SAID HEATED AIR TO THE BUCK UNDER LOWER PRESSURE THAN THE PRESSURE OF THE SUPPLY WHEN THE BUCK IS IN ITS DRESSING POSITION, MEANS CONTROLLED BY THE UNIT-MOVING MEANS TO INCREASE THE PRESSURE OF THE HEATED AIR IN THE BUCK WHEN THE BUCK IS IN ITS PRESSING POSITION, THE UNIT-MOVING MEANS BEING PRESSURE-AIR OPERATED, A VALVE TO VARY THE FLOW OF THE HEATED AIR TO VARY THE PRESSURE THEREOF, AND A CONTROLLER FOR SAID VALVE OPERATED BY PRESSURE AIR RELEASED FROM THE UNIT-MOVING MEANS. 